BRFC1875

Jim Bowen a shocking omission, you can't beat a bit of bully!! Anyway' I'll leave you to it, genuinely good luck for next season. I don't have soft spots for any other clubs and I think that's the way it should be, but I don't like clubs struggling through poor ownership for obvious reasons and as I've said before I see a lot of similarities between yourselves and the Rovers. Hopefully next season will be better for both of us, I believe the Championship PO's are down to 8 places next year so who knows we might get a miracle and I'm sure you'll come straight back up. GL lads.

Of course, I don't in anyway blame people for not going. In life in general people don't like being "mugged off" and that's what it feels like when you follow a club blindly and you see people running it or playing for it without any real feeling's for the club and getting paid fortunes to boot. It does smack of having the p!ss taken out of you. The most annoying thing is, they'll get away with it, because people's love of their club is so deep that they'll keep turning up and paying their money regardless of the sh!t they're getting served up. You'll get a drop off of course but football is not a business as some would have us believe and no matter how badly they treat their "customers" a lot will keep coming back for more and they know that. Without going off on a tangent, football started to lose it's soul when SKY got involved and the Premier League was founded. It's then that the game started to be more about money, money men, rich people on ego trips, big corporations etc etc and less about the average working class man that's kept the game going for decades. In many ways our clubs have been stolen from us by the super rich and in the cases of Leicester and the Rovers, run into the ground. Just one thing I would add is that where our situations differ is that there's not really an issue with our fanbase and the players in general, it's all about the owners. Obviously you get players getting slagged off for not being good enough, but the actual effort they've put in this season is rarely questioned, in many ways we've over performed. Obviously with Leicester it's the exact opposite, there's no way that squad should be getting relegated and it's an obvious indication that a good few have not been putting in a shift.

I'm going In all seriousness, I've read a lot of topics on this forum over the last few weeks and it fascinates me because it echoes lots of the things you'll find over on the Rovers forums, the main one being the obvious massive divide there is in our fanbases. Without being too soppy, what I would say is that when I hear people saying their club is a waste of time, they're a joke, they're finished with them etc etc it makes me sad. The fact is Leicester City and Blackburn Rovers are not identified by the people who run the club at the moment or even the players that play for them. They are identified by the Cities or Town's they represent and the generations of fans that have loved and followed them religiously for knocking on 150 years. People are lashing out because as much as they deny it, it hurts to see their club struggling and seeing overpaid mercenaries kissing the team badge and acting like they care when in actual fact they only care about themselves. Seeing owners on an ego trip, loads of money, but little knowledge about the game or what the football clubs they're custodians of actually mean to the people that love them. So what I would say is, yes be mad and lash out at the under performing players and poor owners if you like, but don't ever slag off your club. Deep down you know you love it or it wouldn't invoke such extreme emotions. I love my club, always have and always will and you can admit that without being a happy clapper or feeling like you're supporting the people responsible for our current situations.

There'll likely be a few more Rovers fans on on Saturday than has been the case recently to pay tribute to the fantastic Tony Parkes who passed away last week. The man is a legend in these parts and served the club brilliantly for nearly 35 years as a player, coach and numerous times as a caretaker manager. He was a true gent and poignantly passed away on the night the Rovers secured their safety away at Sheff Utd, another coincidence being the fact he was born in Sheffield. Anyway there'll be a tribute to him before the match and it's hoped that he'll get the one remaining un named stand named after him in the future. As I said he was a real loyal servant and a great down to earth man and I'm sure the tribute will be respected by everybody including the Leicester fans that travel.

Yeah I was at all those games, that Russell goal was when our keeper smacked it against him and he run it into an empty net if I remember rightly? We all know Speedie dived, it's no secret! He was one of those players that you loved if he played for you and hated if he played for someone else, he was only here a season but he's still idolised at Ewood 30 odd years later, that takes some doing. In that 3-3 game Mike Newell got sent off for kicking Colin Hendry, it doesn't show it on that video and I forgot you had G McAllister playing for you, what a player he was. That season we made it to the PO's and got smacked 6-1 by Chelsea over 2 legs in the days when the team that finished 4th bottom of the 1st division had to play in them for a chance to stay up. I don't know how many season's they did that for, it can't have been more than 2 or 3 but I think they do something similar in Scotland now.

PS is there anyone posting on here that was at this match? Terraces, a muddy pitch and teams full of English players.... and Mike Newell the dirty bastard

A sad state to see 2 former Premier League champions really struggling. At the risk of sounding a bit "entitled", when you see what's happened at clubs like Brentford and Bournemouth in the last few years I don't think it's unreasonable for us to be feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. As it stands, you're obviously in a worse situation than us right now, your fall from grace has been quicker and more dramatic no doubt and as I've stated elsewhere, in the modern game Leicester is certainly a bigger club than the Rovers, but in many ways we've experienced very similar paths. I'm sure with the negativity around the club you'll be doubting your ability to bounce straight back up, but as an outsider looking on I think you probably will. We had a season in League 1 and came straight back up, you don't want to get stuck down there like Sunderland or Ipswich did. Anyway good luck for next season, there's a strong feeling at our place that we've just delayed the inevitable for a season or two. We'll see, I'll go for a 3-2 Rovers win on Saturday.

You're a million miles away with that one, there's a massive divide in the Rovers fanbase and has been for years, I would argue the worst in the whole country. I've read lots of comments on this forum and you could literally be reading a Rovers forum. In many ways Leicester and the Rovers are pretty unique clubs in the modern game and whilst I concede that as a City club, you're bigger than us, both clubs relatively recent above expectations success has fashioned very similar fan bases. Sorry for the war and peace but I've copied and pasted a post from one of our forum discussions and I think you'll get the idea that what's going on at Leicester is almost identical to what's going on at the Rovers. Exactly right Drog, we have the most unique fanbase in the whole country, split right down the middle. Some, like me and you, see the Walker years as the outliers, the 30 years or so before and the 15 years or so since, as a more realistic indication of where a small to medium sized club lies in the modern game dominated by money and the big city clubs. The video mentions that the unrest has nothing to do with relegations or defeats, but the simple fact is that what is going on on the pitch is EVERYTHING to the half of the fanbase that suddenly fell in love or had it's love rekindled by the success of the Walker years. If we magically found success under the Venky's, these people would quickly get over their grievances and be back on Ewood like a shot. Equally if the Venky's sold up and the "shame" continued under new owners, they'd be flapping their arms about and crying the exact same, just with new targets. I'll say again, I'm no fan of the Venky's. To use an analogy, I'd liken their ownership to that of parents who raise their child and give them all the basics they need, but none of the love and time that child needs to flourish. They are keeping us alive, yes, but it's unlikely we will ever flourish under their tenure. I'd also like to see someone new have a go, that's not my gripe, my issue is with the rhetoric that these fans use and the OTT way they go about it. If we've had 15 years of "shame", what have Bolton had? What have Oldham had? What have Sheff Wed had..... or countless other comparable or bigger clubs that have had it a lot worse? It boils down to one word and Drog mentioned it, entitlement. Whether these Venky's out extremists would admit it or not, their starting point will always be "how can former Premier League champions be in this predicament"? That's their default starting point for everything, they may not say that in their posts or videos, but they can deny it all they want, when they close their eyes and think of the Rovers they think of Alan Shearer, Kenny Dalglish, 30,000 crowds and winning the Premiership. All those things did happen and they're fact, but if that's your starting point when you're asked to judge this club in the modern game, then you'll never be happy again. Those times were fantastic, but they're gone and those heights will never be hit again. BUT we can become a Premiership club again and that should always be our aim. If clubs like Bournemouth, Fulham, Brentford and Burnley can do it, then we most certainly can as well. The biggest example of what a medium sized club can achieve is surely Brighton, no bigger than us in truth, but in the here and now, a million miles away from us with a fantastic owner that's a lifelong supporter and has put not only money into the club but also his time and love. But it's worth remembering for every Brighton, there's a Sheff Wed so maybe we as a fanbase should be a little more realistic and balanced when describing the Venky's tenure and seeing it more as a very average period in the club's history and not a "shameful" one. My half of the fanbase wants success, craves success, but wanting and expecting are two totally different things and that's where the line and divide in the fanbase lies and it's tearing away at the club every bit as much as the Venky's are. RTID.

I'm sticking my nose in again but I'll say it again, it's far from just a Leicester City problem, it's a modern day football problem and it's getting worse not better. I'm no youngster, I'm 53 this year, but matters off the pitch are still as important to me as when I was going to the matches with groups of lads in the 80's and 90's every week. But for every fan like me who still thinks that our main job is turning up and making as much noise as you can, there are a hundred that say they want an atmosphere but don't really want anyone near them trying to create one. I'm genuinely embarrassed about the support we get at Ewood and I'm not talking about the 1000's that have disappeared since the glory days. I'm talking about the ones that still go and sit there in silence every other week. Football is nothing without an atmosphere, you may as well stay at home and watch it on the telly. Our away support is passable on a good day, like when we beat you to stay up a couple of season's back, but in general there are too many going that are reactionary in their support rather than proactive, in the old days they'd be labelled sing when you're winning types.

Yeah the game's gone in many respects, certainly for our generation that were brought up on the terraces. In the 70's and 80's you were a hooligan if you caved someone's scope in with an iron bar, in 2026 you're one if you swear in front of a woman. It's been sanitised beyond recognition, in reality the most important job a fan has is to pay to see his team and make as much noise as he can during the game, that's it really. In my day they were revered and labelled great die hard fans, now they're called happy clappers and ridiculed. Funny how times change eh?

You've obviously not been to Ewood recently. It was the only ground in the country where the atmosphere was better during Covid.

I couldn't agree more with this. I'm obviously a bit younger than you and grew up in the 80's but I remember the terrace days, I remember your team running out to the roar of your own fans followed by the opposition running out to a chorus of boo's, getting to the ground an hour before kick off and the atmosphere building up from then to the KO at 3.00pm on a Saturday etc etc. As you say everything about the game, including the average modern day fan is so sterile nowadays that the actual matchday experience is a shadow of what it was. But if you're younger and never experienced those times then you'll probably put it down to the older generation glorifying the past as the older generation tend to do, but when it comes to footy, it's 100% the case. Teams full of foreigners playing at walking pace, perfect pitches, no hard tackling, players legs collapsing every 2 ****ing minutes, getting told to sit down or stop swearing because you've got excited and swore in front of a kid sat behind you - at a bloody football match!! I could go on all day but the overall experience and the type of fan it's bred is the perfect formula for apathy. We see it at the Rovers and you obviously see it here. Again I could write paragraphs, but in largely getting rid of the hooligan problem which undoubtably needed something doing about it, we've cracked a walnut with a sledgehammer and the game - and the fans that turn up to watch it - are largely a shadow of their former selves.

Not wishing to stick my oar in where it doesn't belong but a lot of the comments on this thread are virtually identical to the ones we see regularly on our forums and I dare say the Sheff Wed forums and West Brom Forums etc. Poor owners and poorly run clubs are becoming more and more common and the consequences in the modern game can be catastrophic because there's simply TOO much money in the game and it's weighted so far in favour of the Premier League clubs that many get themselves into massive trouble trying to chase the glory. I know none of what I've said above is news to anyone and you're only really interested in the plight of your club but I feel for any genuine fan of any club that's in trouble due to their club being mismanaged. Our attempted protests have been worse than half hearted, people are simply giving up and it's sad. GL anyway, we obviously play you at Ewood on the last day and that could be a massive game for us both.

Virtually every team we've played this season has given our football glowing praise but we keep getting spanked. I've every faith JDT will find the right balance between attack and defence soon and I don't see us as being relegation candidates but the top 6 is very unlikely.

Blackpool and Coventry (I know you won't like that) are two of the better ones, Boro can be good as well. But for someone of my age that went to Leeds in the old terrace days when 20000 there would make some frightening noise, the new "good" is a different beast. We all know the general reasons. All seater all ticket games, loads more women and kids going on, less big groups of lads/fella's going, stupid KO times from the fan's friends at SKY etc etc. It's succeeded in getting rid of a lot of the trouble which is no doubt a good thing but the damage it's done to the general atmosphere at grounds has been terrible.

Thought you might like a perspective from the other side re fans/support today. As far as we're concerned the KO time made very little difference, the home support at the Rovers has been worse than terrible for years, right up there with the worst in the league. There are a lot of mitigating circumstances regarding the numbers we get and the actual vocal support but most of them are just excuses from fans that are unwilling to accept that our support at Ewood is nothing short of shameful. For anyone that went today, I was stood with the small section to your left, a section that's never had big numbers but has been hit hard with loads of fans banned for the most trivial of transgressions. I would class your support today as v good in numbers for a noon KO on SKY and good overall for noise when you did get going but as some have touched on above, when you don't feel in competition with the home support, it can be difficult to get yourself going, even when you're winning comfortably. I know you've got issues with your support at the KP, but in all honesty, I do a lot of away games and I can't really say anywhere is outstanding. The modern day fanbases are just a lot less passionate and noisy than they were once were. Sad, because footy's shit without an atmosphere, may as well watch it on the telly. GL

Rumour has it the ref is bringing a Basketball instead of a footy tomorrow! Our games have been massively open on the whole this season and we're playing a brilliant style of football but the results have not really matched how well we've played. We all know the script with clubs like yourselves though that have just been relegated and held on to a percentage of your top level players and are boosted by the parachute payments. It's a massive advantage and as such the Rovers are obviously going to be up against it so I'm going for a 4-3 Rovers win. Best parking is Branch Road industrial units for about a fiver and 15 mins walk from ground or you could maybe get some free street parking relatively close but most areas near the ground are permit's only and you'll get booked so be careful. The Fernhurst pub virtually across the road from the ground is the best/closest away fan pub but also tends to be the busiest. Have a good day anyone coming up apart from the result obviously.